I’m looking to buy a property to keep my horses.
I’ve found one place I am interested in. It is a 7 acre rectangle, but it is quite narrow. I don’t have exact measurements yet, but it’s only about 100-120ft wide.
It is mostly cleared/ fenced for horses, but it doesn’t have a barn or arena.
The house is very affordable and in a very convenient location, but is the property too narrow to work? I’d want to put in a full sized dressage arena, and eventually a small barn (for 3-5 horses).
What are the property line set back requirements for your area for things like a barn and a riding ring?
I think you need to know the answer to that question before anyone can help you.
Is a very skinny long shape optimal? No. But if the set back requirements allow you to build a small barn and a riding ring, and the price is right, I am sure it can be very usable.
if 120 feet wide this property would need to be about 2,500 feet deep…just walking to the back from the front and returning would be nearly a mile (if 100ft wide then it would be 3,000 feet)
One consideration is that an arena even oriented short side would take up nearly the whole width of a section. Depending on what’s bordering the property now or in the future that can be a lot of dust for neighbors and very close proximity for potentially spooky or dangerous external stimuli.
I would be worried about my neighbors if you have them or the potential if the property alongside yours gets sold?
You have zero buffer zone and privacy.
The setback requirements for the side of the property is 2 meters (or 6.6ft). So, theoretically a dressage arena would fit in the property with about a 15ft buffer on either side. Should allow for me to plant some trees and create some privacy?
Right now the neighbour properties are almost completely treed, so it’s private for now but I wouldn’t want to count on it staying that way, so I’d want to add some trees to my side.
If you can make the setbacks work I would go for it. But be very careful understanding the set backs. Also, if the property is on septic assure you have options if you would need to replace that in the future. Those setbacks may well be different than farm buildings/barn. Where I live the setbacks for sheds is different than barns and septic is whole other thing.
Just found out the property is 150ft wide, so that’s better than what I thought!
I’d sent the property map to some barn specialists or folks that lay out property. It could work especially if you used a track system for turnout.
Yikes that’s narrow! I was thinking it was an acre wide (208 feet) and 7 deep.
What’s on both sides?
Neighborhood or agriculture?
HOA?
Restrictions?
Here in redneck live-in-boxcar ville, no one cares what you do on your own land. The risk is a neighbor buying a similarly skinny/deep lot and racing dirt bikes around or raising pigs and fighting chickens.
So, what’s around you?
The neighbours have lots the same size. Currently they’re 80% treed with a house up by the road.
That’d be a great option! Does anyone know of any companies that offer this? I’ve tried googling it and can’t seem to find any…
A dressage arena with trees around it for privacy or shade may sound good, but depending on tree species selected you may be raking leaves or pine straw from the arena more often than you care to. And if you use an arena groomer before raking, the leaves and especially pine needles will embed and drag out the upper layer over time. I learned this lesson the hard way with surrounding pine trees and a huge oak tree.
I follow this company of Facebook. They do beautiful stuff that I dream about on my own property.
I’ve personally never used them.
I think you would find the width of the property you describe very difficult.
My property is pretty narrow IMO (the badly drawn yellow highlighter is approximately my boundaries):
But my narrow” is 300’ in the front and 450’ at the back, roughly. Part of what makes mine feel so narrow is that the driveway splits it. The property you are describing would be like limiting my entire farm to the skinnier side. I guess I could survive? But it would be tricky, especially if I had to account for setbacks, etc.
Yes tell me about that. I get pine straw dropping in my arena in the Fall and Winter and it is a mess. I have to hand rake it out and separate the pine straw from the fiber additive and cart off the pine straw to a mulch pile. If I try to drag the arena with leaves and pine straw in it - the pine straw accumulates and clogs up the drag. Then I end up scraping all the footing off the base with the drag. This fall I will be getting rid of some low lying branches with my chainsaw.
Shade from trees is good but don’t put those trees too close to the arena if you want to drag the arena. Wish I had known that.
It’s not ideal but it can work. My property was two parcels that have been merged. One is old railroad grade and is long and narrow, but it’s flat. The other is triangular but on a hillside. So the house is on the hill and the barn, arena, and driveway are on the flat. The barn and house are farther apart than I’d prefer but it works. To me turnout is critical so my arena doubles as my turnout which works for me but is not for everyone. The way stuff is laid out the easiest way to get to the arena is through the barn. You can get a big truck between the berm and the barn but it’s a tight squeeze. Here flat spit at a premium and I don’t mind being creative.
For now. Envision what the property would feel like if one or both sides clear cut the land and put in multiple homes. A line of trees may not feel like much of a buffer
I looked at a place years ago that was also a long, narrow rectangle. More than 20+ years, so I don’t recall exactly how narrow.
House was at the top & what bothered me was the thought of having to clear that very long drive of snow every winter.
If that won’t be a consideration for you, do some measuring for the arena you want & go from there.
Our first farm was set in the middle of a rural area --no neighbors at all. We built our house and barn and life was good --UNTIL the area around us sold and houses began to be built around us. One house was built only 19 feet from our back fence. Soon, there were problems --some our fault (we were used to living in a rural area and slow to adjust to a more subdivision vibe.) DH was not good about walking the dog and had developed a habit of just “letting him out,” and neighbors complained (justified). Their kids fed the horses through the fence and climbed the gates breaking them down. Our manure pile attracted flies (yep, it did) and was close to their back sitting area. Finally, after the umpteenth time someone complained, DH said, “sell it.” So I did.
I found a place with 20 acres and a house and barn set squarely in the middle --no more problems.
Now all our neighbors are wonderful Amish people who maintain their fences, keep their kids on their side of the fence (except when they are over at my place painting gates, mowing, or doing other kid-friendly work for me) --much better!
So, in my opinion, with such a close proximity to neighbors, you might find non-horse neighbors a problem eventually.
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